News Corp. Buys 2 Groups of Weekly Papers

By MARIA ASPAN

Published: September 28, 2006

The News Corporation, owner of The New York Post, has broadened its metropolitan-area presence with the acquisition of two newspaper groups that have 28 weekly papers primarily serving Queens and Brooklyn.

With the move, News Corporation is increasing its reach to the boroughs outside Manhattan and the minority populations that have been strongholds of its main competitor, The Daily News.

While the price of the acquisition was not disclosed, someone close to the deal but not authorized to speak about the matter said News Corporation paid $16 million for the two operations: the TimesLedger and Courier-Life newspaper groups.

TimesLedger publishes 16 weekly newspapers in Queens with a total circulation of 50,000, including The Flushing Times, Astoria Times and Glen Oaks Ledger, according to the News Corporation. Courier-Life publishes 11 Brooklyn newspapers with a total circulation of 90,000, including Bay News, Brooklyn Heights Courier and Flatbush Life, the company said. Courier-Life also publishes Caribbean Life, which has a circulation of 105,000 across the five boroughs and Westchester and Nassau Counties.

The New York Post has average daily circulation of 673,000, according to the latest figures available from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Average daily circulation of The Daily News is 708,000.

Courier-Life, established in 1945, was owned by the publisher Clifford Luster and his parents, Edward and Rhoda Luster. TimesLedger, established in 1935, was owned by the publisher and editor Steven Blank, whose father, Ben Blank, had a small interest in the company. The newspaper groups are the only media properties belonging to Mr. Luster and Mr. Blank.

Les Goodstein, the senior vice president of the News Corporation, said he had been looking for community newspaper groups to acquire since he joined the company in January. ''What we really wanted to do here was find publications from a business standpoint that would complement The New York Post,'' he said. He added that since The Post has ''a pretty good hold on Manhattan,'' his primary goal was to increase coverage in Brooklyn and Queens.

The sale will not affect the editorial staffs of the acquisitions or change their content, Mr. Goodstein said. He added that it has not been decided if the groups' other departments like advertising or circulation might be merged with The Post's to reduce operating costs.

The expansion in Brooklyn and Queens will allow The Post to better compete with The Daily News by offering its advertisers greater coverage. And those smaller papers, attractive to advertisers for their relatively low fees and loyal readership, are more likely to attract major advertisers as part of a larger umbrella company, Mr. Goodstein said.

''It will help The Post to a degree, but our primary goal is to make these publications more profitable,'' Mr. Goodstein said.

The sale is the latest twist in the intense competition of New York's morning daily papers, where The Post and The Daily News compete with publications like The New York Times and free papers like amNew York and Metro. But both the News Corporation and newspaper analysts said the sale would have relatively little impact on the current competition between the Manhattan dailies.

Mr. Goodstein said, ''In similar models across the country, the community newspaper groups have been more profitable than the newspapers that have owned them.''

According to Arlene Morgan, an associate dean at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a former assistant managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the sale will be a good investment for The Post but not necessarily an edge in the Manhattan circulation battles.

Small papers have ''a very low end on production costs, and the rate of return is very high,'' she said. ''Neighborhood advertising is a big draw, it's more important than content, and it's going to help their bottom line overall.''